Kanoko Naedoko
Kanoko Naedoko (苗床 かのこ Naedoko Kanoko) is the main protagonist of the series and attends the prestigious Takara no Tani High School with her middle school friend, Haru Tsubaki . She's tricked into joining the Newspaper Club and later joins the Student Council as Secretary. Appearance Kanoko is a slim girl of a rather short build. Though she seems rather ordinary and apparently has an aura of a "background character," she has a certain charm once a person actually starts to get a notice of her. Tsubaki once stated that she is so far off the radar, nobody notices that she has all the qualities that can make a person popular. She is considered a plain glasses-girl to most people besides the few characters that actually get to see past her facade. Her prominent features, according to a few characters that know her, are her strong, wilful gaze and pale, smooth skin. She is always seen wearing glasses, and her hair is cut in a short, easily-maintained style. Outside of school, Naedoko dresses in a casual fashion which suits her character- as a person who places convenience and comfort over style. Personality Kanoko loves interesting events and enjoys when drama unfolds in front of her, though she often times hates being apart of the drama itself. In the prequel, Warau Kanoko-sama, ''she used consider herself the ''absolute observer. ''Her habit of writing down about others' drama has now stopped upon her entering high school, though she still maintains some of her old dark characteristics. Back then and even up until now, she barely trusts anyone, and tends to look at people's ulterior motives for their words and actions. She, in all honesty, could not care less about her looks. She prefers comfort over appearances, any day. She knows how others see her and doesn't care much about it. Even when being complimented, she never takes it to heart and usually just brushes it off. She is indifferent in wanting to please others, and is usually only interested in her own self-satisfaction. Despite her desire to change and be a refreshing girl in high school, due to the influence of her best friend Momoka, Kanoko's spying tendencies, observing skills, and brilliant tactical abilities make it near-impossible to become one. Kanoko tends to have a darker outlook on things and has a "cold" or even "bad" personality to almost everyone except her close friends. She is also shown to have an impressive acting ability, which she uses at her convenience throughout the manga; this ability is contrasted with her bad habit of speaking her thoughts aloud and blatantly showing what she thinks through her expressions. Furthermore, she often over-thinks situations and is rather dense to matters regarding herself (e.g. Tsubaki's feelings for her). She is often declared by Tsubaki as "scary" when she becomes enthused over complex drama, but whenever she gets involved with a situation, it is very clear that, deep inside, she's doing her best to help--no matter how vehemently she denies it. Relationships 'Takara No Tani High School' 'Haru Tsubaki Kanoko and Tsubaki are best friends, having met in Kanoko's 99th middle school. At first she had a few small reservations about trusting him, but later on she gave him her full trust. He is the person she relies on most of the time due to his brilliant capabilities and skills, in aspects such as looks and intellectual ability. She is quite oblivious towards his feelings towards her, though that could be due to the fact she does not view herself as being in the same level as him in the high school hierarchy, which she is completely fine with. Tsubaki tends to follow Kanoko around wherever she goes, much to her displeasure, since Tsubaki ends up making her stand out. Tsubaki is usually quite jealous of Kanoko's attachment to Momoka, since he wants to be Kanoko's number one person. He's quite possessive of her and likes to keep her to himself. He goes to excessive lengths to protect her, even though she really doesn't need it. Haru tries his best to seduce her, but it usually goes over her head, and more times than not, he is interrupted. Tsubaki used to be very arrogant and didn't talk to his classmates, but after meeting Kanoko he has matured a lot as a person and made more friends. So when Kanoko thanks him for making her join the Newspaper Club because she actually likes being involved with others, he makes her join the elections as secretary because he wants her to widen her world. Tsubaki never attempts to hide his feelings for her, she just doesn't notice. He admits to regard her first as his best friend and then as the person he likes. After Yabuki confesses to Kanoko, he's thinking about confessing his feelings as well, but decides to go against that because he lacks the resolution to give up his position as Kanoko's best friend if things don't go well. Kanoko notices Tsubaki has been acting weird, and after a conversation with Tsubaki's sister insisting he had someone he likes, she starts wondering if Tsubaki actually likes Himeno Sayuri and is hurt when he doesn't share this with her. Tsubaki and Kanoko go to a Christmas "date" which was a boat ride. Although, Tsubaki initially planned to row the boat himself, Kanoko, being her usual self, ended up being the one to row the boat, telling Tsubaki how she's always wanted to try it out and how her sister managed to topple the boat over when they were kids. Tsubaki initially planned to confess to Kanoko during their boat ride, but was interrupted by Mizukami, who was with Yabuki. The four of them went to get something to eat, where they then chat about the universities they would go to. When Tsubaki was asked which university he would choose, he said that he is now not quite sure about that, which alarmed Kanoko. When Tsubaki excused himself to go to the restroom, Kanoko asked Yabuki if they could go their separate ways from that point of the day. However, Yabuki was not satisfied with this, and so made a negotiation with Kanoko. If Kanoko agreed to meet with him to visit the shrine together, then he would gladly leave them for that day. Kanoko agreed, and when Tsubaki came back, she insisted Tsubaki to continue what he was going to say to her during their boat ride. As they sat on a bench, Kanoko says that she has an idea of what Tsubaki was going to say to her. Of course, she got this completely wrong, by coming to the conclusion that Tsubaki was transferring schools and that they won't be together much anymore, which was why Tsubaki was acting strange quite recently. Of course, the reason to Tsubaki's behaviour was because he was planning on confessing his feelings. Tsubaki finally tells Kanoko that being best friends was not enough and that he wants to be her boyfriend. Tsubaki tells her that she doesn't have to answer right away, but rather he wants her to consider his confession very carefully. This leaves Kanoko very confused, and when they return to school after to holidays, Kanoko was caught in quite a predicament, where Tsubaki finds out she met Yabuki during the holidays to visit the shrine, which she wanted to keep a secret from Tsubaki. She then feels as though she is caught "cheating" even though she hasn't done anything wrong. As of chapter 37, the two have started going out. '''You Yabuki Yabuki is one of the first to discover that Kanoko is the mastermind behind the Newspaper Club, after that he regards her as someone suspicious and is cautious when she is involved. When one of Kanoko's schemes backfires and Otabe is allowed to run for President even though he's a senior, Yabuki and Kanoko reluctantly join forces to ensure Otabe won't be elected. Yabuki wins the election and Kanoko is the new Secretary. Once in the Student Council, Yabuki assigns her a task that according to him she won't be able to complete and should teach her a lesson. When Kanoko successfully completes the task, he realizes he's been arrogant and apologizes, telling her that he will think of her as "the unique Kanoko Naedoko" from now on. After the sports festival, Yabuki is shown to have an interest in Kanoko and wonders if she's scared of him because she never smiles when she's talking to him. When Naedoko starts working during her breaks to finish her Student Council tasks earlier, she meets Yabuki in the Student Council Room working on fixing all the loopholes in the school's policies. At first they don't talk about anything other than work, but when she finds him still working late after classes, she tells him that he should use his remaining time in school for himself instead of working too much. During that meeting they smile and talk frankly to each other for the first time. The next day, Yabuki asks Kanoko to have lunch with him, now that he doesn't think she's scared of him, he tells her he won't hold back anymore and wants to talk with her more often. They exchange mails and decide to eat lunch together the next day. After being told by Mizukami that he has feelings for Kanoko, he realises it's true, so he decides to act and confesses to her the very next day, after which Kanoko faints. After waking up, she calls him out of his classroom and rejects his confession, Yabuki then tells her he didn't expect the first confession to go well either, leaving Kanoko to wonder what he meant with that. 'Sayuri Himeno' Sayuri tricks Kanoko into joining the beauty pageant to make her look pretty in front of everyone so she won't be able to go unnoticed and scheme in secret anymore, but after getting to know her she stops her plan and locks her in a closet to stop her from competing. Kanoko initially wanted to be nice to her because she thought she was Tsubaki's friend, but after that incident she stops being friendly and doesn't trust her anymore. Sayuri refers to Kanoko as "Kanoko-Chan" and tries to warn her about the Student Council President knowing she is the mastermind behind the Newspaper Club. When Sayuri and Yabuki are competing for the President Position, Kanoko suggests them joining forces, but in the end Hijiri declines without Sayuri's consent. Kanoko and Sayuri are both elected to be in the Student Council and in recent chapters Kanoko seems to be warming up to her. 'Aruto Otabe' Otabe is obsessed with Kanoko because of her looks. At first, he's a bit worried about her personality because he thinks she is too noisy for him, but when Yabuki shows up asking about his relationship with her, he thinks that if even the stoic Yabuki is interested, then her personality can be overlooked. Kanoko hides every time Otabe is around, however, she won't hesitate to use him when his connections are needed for her schemes. Otabe is oblivious to Kanoko's attempts to avoid him and talks naturally to her. During the elections, he draws suggestive posters of her that will surely help her get the male votes, and he only shows up to the Sports Festival to shamelessly take pictures of her. He uses his connections to gather all the information he can about her. To Kanoko, Otabe is a S-class card, as shown on Chapter 14 of the book where he was used to convince other club leaders to agree on the new rule regarding third year's participation on club activities. She also thinks he is as troublesome as Yumemi, but in a harmful way. 'Hijiri Jouran' Hijiri thinks Naedoko is a plain girl with no qualities whatsoever. He only talks to her when he's trying to get information about something but he's always nice to her and even helps her when Otabe is stalking her. After thinking Sayuri liked Tsubaki, Hijiri goes to Kanoko to find out if Tsubaki is a decent enough guy to date Sayuri, however, Kanoko realizes Hijiri has feelings for Sayuri, but Hijiri denies it. After talking for a while, Hijiri is happy to see Kanoko understands Sayuri and is glad she's in the Student Council with her. He also thinks Kanoko has a cute smile. 'Korekiyo Mizukami' Initially, Kanoko fools Mizukami into thinking she's a helpless girl, however, after their Old Maid game, he realizes her true nature and warns Yabuki about it. Both Mizukami and Kanoko are seen as the "jokers" in the Student Council, whose actions can't be predicted. After noticing Yabuki's interest in Kanoko, Mizukami tries to leave them alone by taking Tsubaki with him. 'Kyouko Shinonome' Kyouko met Kanoko after the entrance ceremony when Kanoko unexpectedly fell in the trap hole she made. After following Kanoko's advice to avoid the disbanding of the Newspaper Club she tricked Kanoko with Tsubaki's help to join the Newspaper Club. Kanoko thinks Kyouko is helpless and troublesome and does what she can to avoid spending extra time with her, going as far as using Otabe's help just to stop Kyouko from pestering her in the future. Kyouko asked Kanoko to call her "Okyou-Senpai" when they first met. 'Middle School Classmates' 'Momoka Hanai' Momoka initially talked to Kanoko to find out if she and Tsubaki had a special relationship after seeing Tsubaki taking an interest in her, but after being confronted by Kanoko she followed her advice about "learning how to speak to others" and continued to stay close to her. When Kanoko saw Momoka being bullied by her classmates and still defended Kanoko, stating that she wanted to become Kanoko's friend, Kanoko went out of her way to warn others about bullying her "friend". After a while, Momoka realises Kanoko is the person she likes the most, and when encouraged by Kanoko to fight for the person she likes, she just says "If I were a guy, I'd surely fight". After spending some special moments with Momoka and her other friends from Tomigaoka, Kanoko came to enjoy their relationship and when she was told she would definitely move, she realised that she really liked Momoka and she wanted to keep being close to her, hence she convinced her parents to let her live alone during her high school life. In Koi dano Ai dano, Momoka and Kanoko are best friends and Momoka has become Kanoko's angel, much to Tsubaki's dismay. Kanoko would do anything Momoka asked, even go so far as to declare her "Princess Momoka" in one of the special chapters. Momoka's observation skills have improved and the time spent with Kanoko has also had an influence on the way she speaks and conveys her thoughts, which is obvious when she calls out Tsubaki's problematic behaviour towards Kanoko. 'Touta Natsukusa' Kanoko first met Natsukusa in middle school, when she was observing him. When he found her observation notes on the floor, he immediately started acting friendly towards her. She eventually became very interested in him, and when she used him in her endeavour to try to investigate what "normal" is, she started observing him even deeper. Back then she seemed to have developed feelings towards him, and even tried to set Momoka up with Tsubaki, because of Natsukusa's crush on Momoka, but Tsubaki quickly realised her intentions, even before Kanoko realized herself that she was interested in Natsukusa. After Tsubaki knocked some sense back into her, she quickly fell back into her usual role as an observer, and very quickly forgot any special feelings she may or may not have had. Kanoko considers Natsukusa to be very dim, and someone you can not get serious with, because if you do, you'll probably lose. She even once stated back in middle school, that innocent young people like him made her sick, but that was probably just her bad personality before getting to know him. She also considers him insensitive and naive to a fault. He has a friendly relationship with Kanoko, and they get along well with each other, especially when talking about Momoka. She no longer seems to have any special feelings towards after the first chapter of Warau Kanoko-sama. They are considered close enough friends for her to take graduation picture with him, Tsubaki, and Momoka, which she keeps in her room. They also happen to have the same (bad) sense of fashion as well as choice of gifts. 'Jounoshin Yamada' Kanoko and Yamada have a good relationship. Yamada knows how to read the mood during their meetings and Kanoko notices this. During Kanoko's birthday Yamada noticed Kanoko had become cuter since their middle school days and joked about asking her to date him. They talk normally but aren't particularly close. 'Reiko Kakitsubata' Kanoko and Reiko seemed to only hang out together because they had the same circle of friends in the beginning, but have grown closer since then. After spending the day together during Natsukusa and Yamada's school festival and interacting using their real personalities, Kanoko started thinking of Reiko as one of her friends. Category:Female